News, interviews, reports, articles, speeches, presentations, and more from Barr staff, grantees, and other partners to illustrate the challenges we are focused on and what we are learning.
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New and Refined Directions for Early Education at Barr
A 2011 strategy review of Barr’s approach to early education led to new and refined directions for this work in 2012 and beyond.
Date Posted: February 14, 2012 | Categories: Barr News
Topics: , early education, education, strategy -
Come Together Right Now…
In his January, 2012 State of the City address, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino opened with a question: How has Boston thrived in a resource-constrained era of fierce political divisions? The answer, argued the Mayor, is that Boston has, “refused to allow strained budgets to result in strained relationships. While others have been building walls, we have been building connections.” One of the most critical recent connections he pointed to is the “District-Charter Compact” – a landmark agreement between the city’s charter schools and the school district. Soon after the Compact was signed last spring, Pat Brandes, Barr’s Executive Director, sat down with Kevin Andrews, a Boston charter school leader and a Barr Fellow, to talk about the Compact, what it means for the city, and its vision for a Boston where families have significantly more choices of academically strong schools, and where the whole city works together to generate integrated solutions challenges that are too complex for either the district or charters to address on their own.
Date Posted: February 07, 2012 | Categories: Barr Fellows
Topics: , barr fellows, boston public schools, charter schools, collaboration, compact, education, systems change -
More Racing to the Top in Massachusetts
In December, 2011, Massachusetts was named as one of only nine states to receive grants under the federal “Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge” – a successor to the Obama administration’s competitive K12 “Race to the Top” program. The State will get an infusion of as much as $50 Million over four years to expand access to high quality early care and education – and to continue strengthening the systems that support this expansion and ensure quality. This is a resounding endorsement of the efforts of countless advocates for Massachusetts’ youngest children, including several Barr grantees, like Strategies for Children, which breaks down the Challenge and its implications for the Commonwealth in a series of recent blog posts.
Date Posted: February 02, 2012 | Categories: Grantee Features
Topics: , early education, early learning challenge, education, strategies for children -
All Things not Being Equal: Equity, Race, and Metro Boston
What is the state of the American dream in Metro Boston? A new report takes a piercing look at how much the answer to that question still depends on race. At a December event at the Harvard Law School, the report, “The State of Equity in Metro Boston” was officially released. It was funded by Barr as part of its Climate portfolio. At the release, Barr Senior Program Officer, Mary Skelton Roberts, might have talked about why. Instead, she shared a story.
Date Posted: January 24, 2012 | Categories: Grantee Features, Presentations & Speeches, Articles, Reports, & Case Studies
Topics: , boston, climate change, equity, mapc -
New Theory of Change, Strategic Narratives, Logic Models
With the input of many, new narratives, logic models, and a theory of change for Barr's Climate Change program are now on our site.
Date Posted: January 17, 2012 | Categories: Barr News
Topics: climate change, energy efficiency, smart growth, strategy, transportation -
New Report Says It’s Worth Reaching the Hard to Reach
When Massachusetts passed its “Green Communities Act” in 2008, it set in motion a range of policies aimed at accelerating the clean energy economy and investments in energy efficiency. One of the mechanisms to make that happen is Mass Save, a utility-managed program that pays for home energy audits and provides rebates for customers to weatherize their homes. These rebates are paid for by a surcharge on utility bills for everyone in the State. And while rebates are offered to everyone, and everyone pays the surcharge, not everybody benefits. This has been especially true among the “Hard to Reach/Hard to Serve” like immigrant communities and communities of color. As the Green Communities Act was rolling out, Barr-grantees in the Green Justice Coalition convinced the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council to pilot new approaches to reaching these communities. A new evaluation makes a strong case that such efforts are well worth it, and will be critical if the State is to meet its targets for emissions reductions. Darlene Lombos, Executive Director of Barr-grantee Community Labor United shares the highlights in this guest post.
Date Posted: January 10, 2012 | Categories: Grantee Features, Articles, Reports, & Case Studies
Topics: , climate change, energy efficiency, green communities act, green justice coalition, racial justice -
The OPPORTUNITY City on a Hill
What would it take to make Boston the premiere “opportunity city?” Since 2010, the Mayor, the Superintendent, and the City’s major funders have been working to answer that question. They started by agreeing to a set of indicators that describe what success looks like at every stage of the opportunity “pipeline” from birth to college and career. At an event in September at an elementary school in Boston’s South End, the partners issued a first annual report card based on these indicators. Rahn Dorsey, Barr’s Evaluation Director was one of the featured speakers. He talked about promising early results from efforts to completely re-imagine summer school. Then he introduced the only speaker most of those present will actually remember – a 6th grader from Mission Hill.
Date Posted: December 27, 2011 | Categories: Presentations & Speeches
Topics: , boston public schools, opportunity agenda, out-of-school time, rahn dorsey, summer learning -
Beyond Silver Bullets, the Levers for Change
Risk, failure, silver bullets, systems thinking, and reaching beyond significant change to transformation – opening remarks from Pat Brandes at a breakfast meeting of the Massachusetts Education Innovators at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Date Posted: December 19, 2011 | Categories: Presentations & Speeches
Topics: , boston public schools, donella meadows, failure, innovation, leverage points, opportunity agenga, risk, system thinking, tony bryk -
New Strategy Graphic
Over a decade ago, the Foundation Strategy Group worked with Barr's trustees and early staff to articulate a first set of strategies and to represent those strategies in a graphic we could use as a communications tool . Through the years, as strategies have evolved, we changed the text but not the look of that old graphic - until now.
Date Posted: December 19, 2011 | Categories: Barr News
Topics: , foundation strategy group, graphic, hairpin communications, strategy, three rings -
First Deep Look at Costs AND Benefits of Northeast Cap-and-Trade Program Shows it a Clear Winner
For three years, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) – a collaborative effort of 10 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states – has been testing the nation’s first cap-and-trade scheme to reduce carbon emissions. The commitment from participating states has been wavering lately. New Jersey announced it would be pulling out. Some others are threatening to do the same. However, a new report about the significant economic benefits RGGI has created already might give them pause.
Date Posted: December 12, 2011 | Categories: Articles, Reports, & Case Studies
Topics: , analysis group, cap-and-trade, climate change, energy efficiency, merck family fund, rggi